Family believes missing man's death could have been prevented

The relatives of a 21-year-old student whose remains were discovered on a beach described his passing as a "preventable tragedy" during a recent inquest. Pawel Martyniak, from Gorleston, went missing in December 2021, and part of his body was later found on Winterton beach in March 2023.

The Norfolk Coroner's Court heard that Mr. Martyniak had stopped taking his medication for a serious depressive disorder in June 2021 and had spoken about experiencing gender dysphoria. In a statement read on their behalf, his family expressed that he had not received the proper care and support, and that his treatment had been "neglected and mismanaged."

Mr. Martyniak was registered with the Beaches Medical Centre in Great Yarmouth. Dr. Sunder Gopaul read a statement from the practice, noting that Mr. Martyniak had begun identifying as female before his death and had requested a referral to a gender clinic. A follow-up statement from the centre said the doctors were unaware that he had stopped taking his medication and that they would have taken immediate action if they had known.

He had also been under the care of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), the local mental health service. Ian Steward-Anderson, a social worker and mental health practitioner at NSFT who began working with Mr. Martyniak in 2020, described him as "quite depressed" and having experienced "some psychotic symptoms." He added that after leaving the University of Essex in 2019, Mr. Martyniak was "ruminating on his failings" and seemed uncertain about his future. "He was a thoughtful, sensitive young man, clearly very troubled at that point," he said.

Mr. Steward-Anderson also noted that Mr. Martyniak was hesitant about medication and questioned his own health, saying, "I don't think he would accept clearly he was experiencing an illness." Their discussions often included topics of identity, sexuality, and gender dysphoria, with consideration of specialist support.

The practitioner mentioned that Mr. Martyniak's mother had worried about his erratic behavior and sleeplessness, but under NSFT care, he had not appeared to be acting unusually. The coroner, Yvonne Blake, was told that the cause of death could not be definitively determined due to the incomplete nature of the remains.

Author: Grace Ellison